Investigating language contact by documenting two endangered Arctic languages, Unangam Tunuu (Aleut) and Mednij Aleut

当至少有两种语言或变体相互作用时，就会出现语言接触的情况。语言学研究表明，在这些情况下会出现各种各样的结果。例如，有时只有几个单词被借用，或者可能出现了全新的语言，或者说话者同时使用两种语言，并以系统的、模式化的方式在它们之间切换和混合。现有的关于语言接触情况的知识存在着很大的差距。该项目将记录和分析一种濒危土著语言和一种欧洲语言之间的语言接触，这种接触导致了两种不同的结果。在一个社区中，社区通过创建混合语言来适应，而在第二个社区中，社区通过转向欧洲语言来适应。这为比较影响接触和适应的因素提供了一个独特的机会，因为源语言是相同的。由此产生的活动还将记录两种濒危语言(混合语言和土著语言)，每一种语言都没有充分的记录，而且处于极度濒危状态。更广泛的影响包括创建以便于社区使用的形式提供的语言材料，通过让当地社区参与者参与来扩大参与，以及促进侧重于北极地区的新的国际关系。国家科学基金会的北极社会科学计划正在为与该项目相关的活动提供额外的支持。Unangam Tunuu语言，也被称为阿留申语，是白令海从阿拉斯加延伸到俄罗斯联邦堪察加半岛的近200个岛屿的土著语言。Unangam Tunuu和俄语之间的语言接触导致了指挥官群岛语言适应的两个截然不同的结果(语言转换与创造混合语言)。一种全新的混合语言Mednij Aleut是Unangam Tunuu和俄语结合的结果。相比之下，白令岛居民保持了他们的Unangam Tunuu方言，后来转向了俄语。国际项目团队包括备受尊敬的Unangam Tunuu专家和教育家摩西·德克斯和Mednij Aleut的领先学者Evgeny Golovko，以研究这些严重濒危的语言以及语言的接触和变化。该小组将收集和分析Mednij Aleut和Unangam Tunuu的白令岛方言的语言数据，并利用历史口头和书面档案资源。旧材料的存在将有助于在两种截然不同的情况下考察语言随时间和地点的变化。特别令人兴奋的是，Mednijj Aleut有潜力为科学理解混合语言做出重大贡献，混合语言是世界上一组虽小但有趣的语言。该项目将增加我们对阿留申地区文化历史的了解，并增加现有的阿拉斯加土著语言文献。美国国会1990年通过的《美洲原住民语言法案》将承认包括阿拉斯加原住民语言在内的美国原住民语言的独特地位和重要性纳入政策。位于费尔班克斯的阿拉斯加大学的阿拉斯加母语档案馆将作为项目数据的储存库。此外，北极地方观测和知识交流(ELOKA)将协助公众传播和获取。后一步将确保新收集的数据加入Eloka从北极地区其他参与社区广泛交流的当地和传统知识中，增加其对各种受众的价值，包括普通公众、其他土著社区和来自不同学科的专注于北极的科学家。

Language contact situations arise when at least two languages or varieties interact. Linguistic research shows a wide variety of outcomes that occur in these situations. For example, sometimes only a few words are borrowed, or perhaps entirely new languages emerge, or speakers use both languages and switch and mix between them in systematic, patterned ways. There are significant gaps in existing knowledge about language contact situations. This project will document and analyze language contact between an endangered indigenous language and a European language where the contact resulted in two different outcomes. In one, the community adapted by creating a mixed language, and the second where the community adapted by shifting to the European language. This offers a unique opportunity to compare factors that affect contact and adaptation because the source languages are the same. The resulting activities will also document two endangered language varieties (the mixed and the indigenous languages), each of which is inadequately documented and critically endangered. Broader impacts include creating language materials available in formats that facilitate community use, broadening participation by involving local community participants, and fostering new international relationships focused on the Arctic region. The Arctic Social Sciences Program at NSF is providing additional support for activities associated with this project.The Unangam Tunuu language, also known as Aleut, is indigenous to the nearly 200 islands in the Bering Sea that stretch from Alaska towards the Kamchatka Peninsula of the Russian Federation. Language contact between Unangam Tunuu and Russian resulted in two distinct outcomes of language adaptation (language shift vs. creation of a mixed language) in the Commander Islands. An entirely new mixed language, Mednij Aleut, arose as a result of the combining of Unangam Tunuu and Russian. In contrast, Bering Island residents maintained their dialect of Unangam Tunuu and later shifted to Russian. The international project team includes the highly respected Unangam Tunuu expert and educator Moses Dirks and the leading scholar of Mednij Aleut, Evgeny Golovko, to research each of these severely endangered languages, as well as language contact and change. The team will collect and analyze language data for Mednij Aleut and the Bering Island dialect of Unangam Tunuu, as well draw on historical oral and written archival resources. The existence of the older materials will facilitate an examination of language change over time and place in two very different situations. Especially exciting is the potential for Mednijj Aleut to contribute significantly to the scientific understanding of mixed languages, which is a small but interesting set of languages of the world.The project will increase our understanding of the cultural history of the Aleut region and increase existing documentation of Native Alaskan languages. The Native American Languages Act, passed by the U.S. Congress in 1990, enacted into policy the recognition of the unique status and importance of Native American languages, including Alaska Native languages. The Alaska Native Language Archive at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks will serve as the repository for the project data. In addition, the Exchange for Local Observations and Knowledge of the Arctic (ELOKA) will assist in public dissemination and access. The latter step will ensure that the newly collected data gets added to ELOKA's extensive exchange of local and traditional knowledge from other participating communities in the Arctic region, increasing its value to a wide variety of audiences, including the general public, other indigenous communities, and Arctic-focused scientists from a variety of disciplines.